Quartz Daily Brief—Europe edition—Yahoo wants Tumblr, India-China tête-à-tête, Bloomberg seeks plumber
What to watch for today
Yahoo’s $1.1 billion Tumblr play. Yahoo is expected to announce an all-cash deal to buy the popular blogging site Tumblr. CEO Marissa Mayer is trying to make Yahoo hip again, but monetizing Tumblr’s 60 billion annual page views could be difficult—especially because they include a whole lot of porn.
Jamie Dimon works the room. JP Morgan’s chairman and CEO will fly to Florida as part of a last-ditch attempt to thwart the shareholder resolution to separate his dual roles. Dimon’s lieutenants are exploring a possibility of a deal before the final vote on Tuesday.
Asian Diplomacy Day. Chinese premier Li Keqiang will visit his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in Mumbai, following a bizarre Himalayan border standoff between the two giants. Separately, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is likely to discuss potential arms deals with Indian officials. And Myanmar President Thein Sein visits US President Obama in Washington as the countries seek to consolidate the fragile diplomatic breakthrough that ended Myanmar’s pariah status in 2011.
Campbell’s earnings: “mmm mmm good.” Campbell Soup is set to report piping-hot third-quarter results before US markets open, with new products and overseas expansion expected to produce double-digit revenue growth.
While you were sleeping
North Korea’s at it again. The hermit kingdom fired short-range missiles into the ocean for the second day in a row, and reportedly hijacked a Chinese fishing vessel, holding 16 sailors for ransom.
David Cameron is “losing control.” Former conservative minister Lord Howe launched a scathing attack on the UK prime minister, accusing him of “opening a Pandora’s box” by opposing the terms of Britain’s membership in the European Union.
Jamaica is not irie. Concerns are mounting that the island nation is teetering on the verge of financial collapse. A bailout by the International Monetary Fund may be its last chance.
Quartz obsession interlude
Christopher Mims and Leo Mirani on the man behind Bitcoin (maybe). ”The inventor of Bitcoin, says [hypertext inventor Ted] Nelson, is probably Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki. Nelson offers no direct evidence for his conclusion. Instead, in his eccentric way, he offers plausible circumstantial evidence about his theory… Whoever created Bitcoin has the intellectual might of Isaac Newton.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Ben Bernanke tells grads their future is bright. In a weekend commencement speech, the US Federal Reserve chairman offered a long list of reasons to be optimistic about the economy. Meanwhile, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that subpar students would be better off as plumbers.
Will robots take our jobs? Yes, but much more slowly than everyone thinks.
The euro crisis forced Greeks to put off having babies. Not anymore.
Surprising discoveries
The yellow light gambit. Florida tweaked its stoplights by a fraction of a second and raised millions of dollars through increased traffic tickets.
Gold coins and a treasure map might rewrite Australian history. How did 1000-year-old coins end up on a remote beach?
Want to be better at math? A jolt of electricity to the brain might help.
Biceps vs. taxes. The strange correlations between male upper body strength and support for wealth redistribution.
It’s hard to fight land mines if you can’t find them. Honeybees to the rescue.
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